Hand-cooked Beetroot Chips

Well, I’ve learned my lesson from my last post. I’ll stick to “regular” ingredients this time. There was no shortage of visitors who seemed to think that I was mad enough to stuff a load of minced beef into apples, top it with sugar, bake it… and then call it a dessert (despite me linking to my original mincemeat post several times)? I’m sure that now all these people will be thinking that I’m absolutely crazy… or worse, maybe they might even try it themselves (God, I hope not!). Nevertheless, I guess I can now say that I’ve learned that mincemeat is even less well known than I’d always thought. I always knew it caused confusion but… wow!

Here’s a little snack which shouldn’t cause anyone any befuddlement today though. Beetroot chips (or beets, as they’re known to some, and dare I say “crisps”, instead of “chips”, as they’re known to others). I was in my local supermarket recently and what should I see in the produce section but… raw beets! There they were, sitting cheerfully next to a display of purple carrots. I consider this a big win on my part. Many years ago it was difficult to find parsnips in stores here. They popped up on markets around Christmas time but they weren’t something you could easily find in supermarkets. Slowly they have become more and more available, though I was still missing other things. Beets are often sold pre-cooked here. Maybe the vendors think they’re doing the consumer a favour – pre-boiling hundreds of beets, throwing away all the lovely stalks and leaves, and then selling the sweaty beets out of large styrofoam boxes at markets… the kind that are packed with ice and fish in sea markets. While this can sometimes be useful it significantly reduces the number of things that you can do with your beets, and so to find them raw… and from a supermarket as well – not just a fancy farm shop – made me really happy! All I need now is to get some with the leaves still attached.

As my exposure to foods around the world, as well as to different peoples and their cultures, has broadened over the couple of years I’ve been blogging so far, I’ve also learned of the existence of purple carrots. Whoever knew such a thing existed, but if you can get tomatoes which are deep purple and white aubergines then sure – why not purple carrots? They’re apparently really good for you (because of the purple hue – I forget what specific nutrient it is, or how it helps your body more than regular carrots), and I finally saw these too (along with some yellow carrots) at the store. Now all I need to find is golden beets and I’ll be all set.

Anyway – these chips are truly delightful. I say this with many beetroot recipes, but even if you don’t like beets then I think you may just enjoy these. They have a delicate, sweet flavour which ideally needs to be offset with a good dusting of spice or salt. The colour is absolutely delightful and if you can be bothered, I’d strongly recommend serving them as an assortment with parsnip chips and potato chips. As with most chip recipes, they’re going to require some deep-frying but don’t be scared – break out that pan and get cooking!

Enjoy the rest of the post – I’ll be back in a few days with something new, but before I forget – for anyone who didn’t already, don’t forget to enter my little competition I’m running to celebrate surpassing 100,000 viewers on my YouTube channel! Have a great monday everyone.

Hand-cooked Beetroot Chips

Ingredients

Several large, raw Beets

Oil for deep-frying (I used 1 litre of Peanut Oil, which is ideal for deep-frying)

You’ll also need

Instructions

Start off by peeling the beets. Slice them very finely (slices should be about 1mm thick or slightly less) using a sharp knife or mandoline. Once all the beets have been prepared, pour the oil into a deep pan and set onto the stove to heat. Ideally, use something like an oil thermometer to keep a track of the oil temperature. When the oil is at about 150-160 degrees Celsius it’s ready to go.

Place a small handful of beetroot slices into the hot oil. The slices will bubble violently in the beginning. Press them down with a slotted metal spoon to ensure they are well covered in the oil. The initial vigorous bubbling will subside to smaller bubbles popping up. They will fry quite fast. As soon as they have stopped bubbling completely (so it looks like they’re just floating in the oil) remove them immediately. If you leave them in the oil after the bubbling has stopped they will burn and because of the higher natural sugar content in beets, burnt chips do not taste good!

The chips will seem soggy when removed from the oil. Allow to drain on kitchen paper and they will become crisp as they cool (this will take only a minute or so). Repeat until all the slices are fried and then season the cool chips to taste – I used salt, pepper, cumin and cayenne pepper – and enjoy!

Comments

I had exactly the same response when I posted my mother’s Christmas mince pies recipe. I had comments from Americans thinking there was actual mince in the recipe. Mince meat (the fruit mince we know it to be) is not heard of in the USA. They make pies like pumpkin pie and key lime pie and coconut pie but don’t make fruit mince or fruit cakes. That’s what the English do. I learned the hard way too. I thought you were brave calling it mince meat – I at least called mine fruit mince yet still there was confusion! xx

Hi Anneli – they’ve got a really lovely flavour, although you need to be quick… they burn so fast once they’re done. It’s literally seconds between having lovely, perfectly done chips, and a burnt mess!

Haha! Yes, I would be one of those who continue to think that minced meat and apple is a delightful combination. And actually, not that odd or uncommon. It is very reminiscent of the well loved French Canadian classic Tourtière – which is often filled with a mix of meat and baked fruit (we use: pear, apple, dates, etc). So, in my books, this is simply a creative application.

Your beetroot chips look great Charles – I’ve come across many bloggers who claim lack of success attempting to make beetroot chips but they were always of the baked variety… perhaps there’s something to frying after-all ;-). Such a pretty colour too!

Hi Kelly – baked chips are something I’ve never tried to be honest. Such things (chips) aren’t the healthiest of things, but I always figure that if you’re going to have them one may as well go all out than risk having something which doesn’t yield the same results maybe.

I was pleased though – I always measure the oil when I’m pouring it back into the bottle after frying and these absorb very little oil compared to potato chips (which suck the stuff up like a sponge!).

Even if people mistakenly thought mincemeat was beef when they came to the post, they should have learned differently by the end of your post. Keep up the innovative ingredients and your readers may actually end up adding something new to their cuisine.

I wouldn’t mind trying the beetroot chips if I saw them in a plate but I doubt I’d actually fry them up myself. At least not at this stage in my cooking explorations.

Hehe, thanks A_ – I hope people learn a thing or two here sometimes :).

Spicing is everything with these beetroot chips. I’m thinking they could possibly be used as part of a dessert if they weren’t covered in salt, cumin etc. Might make for an interesting dessert dimension!`

Hi Charles, my Mom’s best friend was British so I’ve been we’ll acquainted with mincemeat tarts and such; baking it in apples sounds even better—no feathers ruffled here. Kelly over at Inspired Edibles posted something like your chips last year but she baked her chips which is slightly healthier. I tried making it with little success as baking dehydrates the vegetable and it shrinks to less than half the size! My mistake was that I didn’t buy gargantuan sized veg! I’ll have try it again, I loved the flavour of the beets, but then again I adore beets anyway.
I am surprised that parsnips are difficult to come by in Paris, it’s quite a staple in Hungary.
It’s a long weekend here called Family Day so we’re lazing around the house waiting for our friend Paul from Illinois to arrive (Rock Star bus guy, by the way, they ended up selling the bus!)

Hi Eva – I remember Kelly’s post indeed. I’m a big fan of deep-frying chips though. I don’t do it too often… it’s a nice treat every now and again!

Incidentally, I always measure the oil when pouring it back into the bottle and the beets actually absorbed way less oil than potatoes so they’re not *too* unhealthy, although for sure – baking is going to be better!

Though as previously stated I am not a huge fan of beets…but this really IS a way I can eat them and enjoy them. I love beet chips, and yours with the cayenne and cumin to balance the sweet sound perfect. I’ll be over soon! Meanwhile, I need to backtrack to your mincemeat post, but as a southern American, I can’t fathom how anyone wouldn’t know that mincemeat is typically a raisin/current sweet fruit mixture. I grew up with family making mincemeat pies all the time. I hated them, but I knew what it was! Baking it into apples actually sounds good and makes perfect sense.

Hahaha , yes Purple carrots DO EXIST :). From where I come from – EGYPT – we used to make jam with it. Actually my father in law is the one who introduced me to red carrot jam it is super sweet and super delicious. Back to your recipe it is very nice and healthier than potato chips. I usually buy vegetable chips at the store but I am really thinking of making them myself they are very easy to make.. Thanks dear for introducing more vegetables in our lives.

Hi Amira – I must admit that I boiled up the purple carrots when I used them and I was a little disappointed because the colour bled out a lot. I think the best way to use them must be grilled, roasted or just raw so you can really enjoy the gorgeous colour!

Red carrot jam sounds really interesting – something to try one day maybe. Did you ever post a recipe for it before?

Well you are absolutely right they do bleed but it does not affect the color that much – or at least that’s what is happening in the Egyptian ones – we call them red carrots not purple while they are really more purple than red … hmmm I wonder why red???? anyway I haven’t tried making the jam here as I haven’t seen such carrots in the US. I will make sure to take pictures next time I visit Egypt.

No wai, I did it “real man style”. Bare hands! Then I went around looking like I’d committed vegetable murder for the next few days! Totally worth it, seeing celery and onions cower in fear at the sight of me!

Just send me your mincemeat recipes. I’ll definitely appreciate them! OK – so you may have just provided the beet recipe that I needed to actually try to eat beets. I love veggies chips and these looks crispy, sweet and salt and YUMMY! Thanks!

Excellent! I have had a good laugh reading about the mincemeat. Maybe thanks to this misunderstanding any readers found your recipe even more extraordinary and exciting and thought you were the first cook to serve ground meat for dessert
The beetroot crisps look gorgeous! One more home-made recipe which proves we don’t need all the artifical ways to keep the colour. I find the “hand cooked” expression very funny every time I see it (I imagine instantly someone putting his hand into the oil; I just cannot help it Sorry, I’m not a native speaker so I often have weird associations). Otherwise I have already bought violet carrots, but those I bought were much much blander than the orange ones. They are very funny though: I once stir-fried strips of this carrot with noodles and the noodles were all violet! I’m sure they change the colour of the rice too.

Hi Sissi – you know, I wondered about the hand-cooked expression myself. I mean, if you make chips at home of course they’re going to be hand-cooked, right? Well – I guess for me this evokes images of actually doing it manually rather than using a dedicated frying machine. I see the phrase written on some gourmet potato chip packets sometimes so I figure I’ll just steal the phrase too!

I was disappointed when I used the purple carrots. I boiled them (bad idea, I know!) and a LOT of the colour leeched out, so they just looked like they were dirty or bruised in the end (lol!). The best way to cook them is roasted, grilled or raw I think… and probably better to get them when they’re young too! Mine were quite old and fat.

Charles, well, with mincemeat it is confusing, and if we do look into history, some people may stick to the original recipe. I know in some areas in US mincemeat is truly about the meat. So don’t feel discouraged! Post what you enjoy making, and the readers will come! I love beets, and yes, prefer that raw so I can do whatever I want with it! The fun part is that I see sometimes in the stores those cooked and sealed in plastic beets made in… France! How’s that?
Golden bets taste sweeter, and it’s great in salads.
Your beetroot chips have beautiful color. I make it in the oven, never tried to fry it (I am too lazy to stand next to the frying pan and work in batches!).

Hi Marina – I find it really interesting how mincemeat has evolved over the years. Apparently some people still use stuff like minced venison in their fruit mince in England! Must be an interesting flavour

Looking forward to trying golden beets one day. Maybe I can try and grow some!

Hi Nami – I love fried lotus root. So tasty and I love the pattern too! I’m not familiar with gobo – must look it up. There’s another root which is often fried too… taro. I see it sometimes… should give that a try too!

To my disappointment, I thought the turnip in the fridge was a beetroot. I really want to make these, a tiny, tiny pack from the shops is for $4 and it barely has any decent flavour to it. Will have to make these soon! Uni starts Monday, so my opportunities to cook cook cook are really slimming down! D:

Hi GG – You’re so lucky having beets in your garden… I’d be so happy if I had them right now. I hope you don’t waste the beetroot greens when you pull them up?! I posted a few recipes using the leaves a while ago. The greens are absolutely delicious, a bit like a rich spinach – I hope you can give them a try!

Welcome! My name is Charles and this is FiveEuroFood. My goal with this site is to offer you recipes which reflect that cooking tasty food from scratch is not only easy and fun, but cheap as well. Read More →